MORGAN HILL -- In seeking better lives for their children, Latino parents in Morgan Hill have felt vilified, ignored and blamed by the very people they had hoped to work with to improve education: their public schools.

Since fall, parents impatient with too few improvements coming too slowly have tried to implore the Morgan Hill Unified School District to expand opportunities for their children. The parents are fueled by a harsh reality: Latino achievement measured on state standardized tests is 142 points below white students. Barely two-thirds of the district's Latino students graduate from high school, compared with 91 percent of its white students. And only 42 percent of Latinos test as proficient in math and English.

Roberto Aguirrez speaks up during a meeting of People Acting in Community Together in Morgan Hill, Calif. on March 19, 2013. At right is Patricia Rountree Amaya. (Gary Reyes/Staff)

"Enough is enough," said Roberto Aguirrez, who has worked on various school committees. "We are second-class citizens."

Another parent, Rosa Rojas, said, "For nine years I've been given promises as I have fought for my children." Now, she asked, "Why are we in the same place?"

Latino students account for about half of Morgan Hill Unified's 8,700 students.

Most of the seven Morgan Hill board members have refused to meet with Latino parents working with People Acting in Community Together. PACT, a faith-based community organizing movement, has successfully catalyzed educational and neighborhood improvements in San Jose and elsewhere. But it has run up against a wall in tight-knit Morgan Hill.

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At a recent PACT meeting at St. Catherine of Alexandria Church to extract public promises of improvement, the only trustee to sit on the panel, Rick Badillo, refused to commit to establishing a charter school or to signing onto SJ/SV2020, the San Jose-led effort to raise Latino and black student academics to the level of Asian and white students by 2020. The Morgan Hill district runs two schools in San Jose.

Board President Don Moody cited a busy schedule as the reason for not meeting with parents. "I don't feel as though we're ignoring them," he said, suggesting parents come to board meetings "and let them get what they have in mind off their chests." Board Vice President Shelle' Thomas cited a belief in separation of church and state behind her refusal to meet.

Morgan Hill Superintendent Wesley Smith disputed parents' claims. "I see us as being responsive," he said, noting that test scores are improving. "Things are going really, really well right now."

While it's true that Morgan Hill's Academic Performance Index numbers have gradually risen, so have scores statewide. And when compared with schools of similar demographics and resources, 11 of Morgan Hill's 13 schools rank in the bottom third, with three in the bottom tenth.

The gap between Latino and white scores has been consistently larger in Morgan Hill than in the state as a whole.

"How could there not be a crisis -- just look at the numbers," Rojas said.

Smith acknowledged, "We have an imperative to do a better job." In response to PACT parent pressure, he issued a 68-point list of district achievements titled "Celebrating our Successes 2012-13." For instance, the district has hired more Latino administrators and offers after-school help. "If you need help in math," he said, "you get help in math."

Parents dispute that claim. Patricia Rountree Amaya sought to enroll one of her four sons in an after-school math program at Jackson Elementary and was told, "That's only for advanced kids," she said. Now Amaya, who was a teacher in Mexico, pays a tutor for her son.

Rosa Ramos holds her son, Alexis, 2, as she speaks during a meeting of People Acting in Community Together in Morgan Hill, Calif. on March 19, 2013. (Gary Reyes/Staff)

Parent Rosa Ramos said when she went to investigate why her son cried when he had to go to preschool, she found he was constantly being punished and was told by the teacher that he would never learn. "I was made to feel less" for asking for help, she said.

Parents say teachers and others in the district accuse them of behaving like victims, wonder why they're angry and view them with suspicion. Yet the parents say all they want are across-the-board improvements.

"We are looking for the district to offer a good education for all the children," said mother Elidia Alvarado.

"How can we describe the reality without offending people," said Angelica Dannenberg, mother of three children at Paradise Valley Elementary. "The reality is drastic."

As in low-income communities elsewhere, the PACT parents hope charter schools could succeed where their neighborhood schools have failed.

Charter operator Navigator Schools, which runs the successful Gilroy Prep charter, will seek a charter from the Morgan Hill board next month. Gilroy Prep, which is 60 percent Latino, posted a 978 last year on the 200-to-999 API scale.

Julia Hover-Smoot, a former Morgan Hill trustee and member of the Santa Clara County Board of Education, said she hopes her former colleagues will approve the charter school. The Latino community is facing an educational crisis, she said: "We are not serving those children well."